Polyethylene (PE)

Guide by: ME Item Storage Cell

Polyethylene is the first plastic that you will make. Its main component is ethanol.

How to make Polyethylene

Ethanol

There are 2 ways to go about it, using either Create ethanol, or Gregtech ethanol.

Create is good as an early game source, not requiring electricity, and easily automated with just a few pipes. However it doesn't scale very well (especially in terms of space).

Thus if you find yourself running out of ethanol, it may be best to switch to the Gregtech method instead. Both guides will assume you have some source of sugarcane automation setup.

Create Ethanol

flowchart LR
    %%{init: { 'theme': 'neutral', 'themeVariables': { 'edgeLabelBackground': 'transparent', 'secondaryColor': 'transparent', 'tertiaryColor': 'transparent', 'labelBkgBackground' : 'transparent' }}}%%

    A@{ img: "https://start-dev-team.github.io/StarT-Wiki/Chemical-Lines/Plastics/PE_img/_createdieselgenerators_basin_fermenting_fermentable.png", label: "Create Basin (Lid on!)", pos: "t", w: 200, h: 200, constraint: "on" }

    B@{ img: "https://start-dev-team.github.io/StarT-Wiki/Chemical-Lines/Plastics/PE_img/composting_sugar_cane_2.png", label: "Thermal Composter", pos: "t", w: 200, h: 200, constraint: "on" }

    C@{ shape: lean-r, label: "Sugarcane" }

    D@{ shape: lean-l, label: "Ethanol" }

    B --Bonemeal--> A --> D
    C --> A
    C --> B

Hold "Alt" / "Option" to enable pan & zoom

Gregtech Ethanol

BiomassWood VinegarFermented Biomass

Biomass_Distillation

The main and most viable source of GT ethanol early game. There is no need to use the distillation tower at HV, as the only extra product is water.

Wood_Vinegar_Distillation

You will most likely have this set up as a part of Charcoal byproduct distillation, around EV. While it isn't a direct source of ethanol, your demand would have gone down at this stage, so it's a good supplementary source.

Fermented_Biomass_Distillation

Not worth setting up in MV, as it gives less ethanol than normal Biomass. But in HV, it does give other useful byproducts like methane in the Distillation Tower, so its really up to you if you set it up.